A World on Fire
by MadHatter524
Summary: Seven of the most important events in Seamus's Hogwarts life, one for each year. With Seamus, everything has something to do with fire. Written for WeasleySeeker's Seven Years at Hogwarts Competition.
1. Year 1

Seamus Finnigan had no idea what house he was going to be Sorted into. He thought he might be brave enough to be a Gryffindor, he was pretty confident that he was friendly enough to be a Hufflepuff, he thought he got good enough grades to be a Ravenclaw, and he was certainly clever and ambitious enough to be a Slytherin. He didn't know which house he wanted to be in, either. He'd heard that Gryffindors were conceited, Hufflepuffs were losers, Ravenclaws were geeks, and Slytherins…well, Slytherins had a bit of a bad reputation after the whole Voldemort thing.

"Finnigan, Seamus!" echoed across the hall, and he slowly made his way up to the rickety stool where the Sorting Hat sat. He was not afraid – at least, that's what he kept telling himself. He was still a bit astounded y the talking hat. Yes, his mom was a witch, but she never used magic around the house because it made his Muggle father feel left out of the fun.

"Seamus, is it?" the Sorting Hat said. Seamus hardly remembered putting on the hat. "I remember your mother – I made the right choice putting her in Hufflepuff. Your aunt, on the other hand…a great Ravenclaw, but she could have done well in Slytherin, too."

Seamus wondered if the Hat remembered every person it had ever Sorted. Then he wondered if the Hat could hear what he was thinking. He took the small chuckle that he heard to be a yes.

"Well, your fiery temper would get you nowhere in Ravenclaw…"

A rush of panic swept through Seamus. Was he not smart enough to be a Ravenclaw? He hated not qualifying for things.

"Oh, you're smart enough," the Hat assured him. "It's not a good fit, though. And not Hufflepuff, either, they never worry about my decisions. And now we have Gryffindor and Slytherin, two great houses, so alike, so different…"

The Hat remained silent for a bit. Then it started to laugh. "Well, you're a tricky one, aren't you, Mr. Finnigan? That fiery temper, though…it makes you a better fit for…GRYFFINDOR!" it bellowed.

Applause exploded throughout the Gryffindor table. Seamus grinned and sat down next to the only other new Gryffindor so far, a rather pretty-looking girl by the name of Lavender Brown. He'd been doubtful, but the Sorting Hat had made the right choice. And even if it hadn't…well, Seamus got the feeling that he'd like being a Gryffindor anyway.


	2. Year 2

Seamus hated Gilderoy Lockhart with a burning passion. Everything about him screamed, "I'm fake! Too 'good' to be true! Don't trust me!" Seamus and his best friend, Dean Thomas, thought that it was their personal responsibility to annoy the heck out of Lockhart, causing as much mayhem as possible without actually getting detention.

Seamus's personal favorite day in Lockhart's class was the day he had managed to bring all activities to a grinding halt by setting his own desk on fire. It wasn't on purpose, of course, but Lockhart's reaction was hilarious.

"I swear it was an accident, Professor!" Seamus yelled over the roaring flames as he frantically tried to push his schoolwork off of the burning desk. Even though it was the truth, Seamus was unable to keep the glee out of his voice.

"Yes, well, Mr. Finnigan, accidents do happen, you're not to blame," Lockhart squeaked from behind his desk. "Why don't you put the fire out, now?"

"But Professor," Seamus complained, "we don't learn that spell until fourth year!"

Lockhart sighed impatiently, but before he could say anything in response, Hermione's high-pitched cry of "Aguamenti!" from the back of the room put the blaze out.

Lockhart quickly regained his composure. "Very good, Miss Granger, twenty points to Gryffindor for mastery of such an advanced spell."

That night in the Gryffindor Common Room, Seamus had quite a crowd surrounding him as he proceeded to tell everyone who would listen about how he had decided to set his own desk on fire and managed to pass it off as an accident.


	3. Year 3

Seamus only signed up for Divination because Lavender had. He figured that the more classes they had together, the more chances he had of impressing her and getting her to go on a date to Hogsmeade with him. Dean signed up because Seamus had, Neville signed up because he didn't want to feel left out, and pretty soon, all of the Gryffindor third years were enrolled in Divination.

"Who would like to help me demonstrate…the tea leaves?" Professor Trelawney inquired dramatically. Seamus's hand shot up in the air. Helping Professor Trelawney read tea leaves wasn't the most impressive thing he could have done, but there wasn't all that much daring or heroics involved in Divination.

Five minutes later, Professor Trelawney was staring intently into the tea leaves at the bottom of Seamus's cup. Seamus fidgeted nervously. He looked at Lavender once or twice, but she was busy gazing at Professor Trelawney with the utmost admiration.

"The leaves reveal nothing," Professor Trelawney said crossly, handing the cup back to Seamus, who promptly threw the tea leaves into the always-roaring fire in disgust.

_Stupid Divination,_ Seamus thought. _Like a weirdly-shaped clump of tea leaves is going to predict the future._

Things didn't improve in Divination. Professor Trelawney's obvious dislike of him combined with his complete disinterest in Divination didn't exactly make for a very good grade. He didn't care, though. It's not like it was an important class like Charms or Defense Against the Dark Arts.


	4. Year 4

From the moment that the Yule Ball was announced, Seamus had intended to ask Lavender to go with him. He didn't know a whole lot about what girls liked and didn't like, but he was pretty sure that girls thought that a ball was quite a bit better than a Hogsmeade trip. He also didn't know how he'd be brave enough to do actually ask her, but he decided that he'd just figure something out as he went along.

Now that he had asked her, he was more nervous than before he'd asked. What would she say? How would she react? He could hardly look her in the eye, he was so scared. Some Gryffindor he was. He saw that her face was as red as his probably was. What did this mean? Was she happy that he'd asked her? Was she sad for him because she'd be letting him down? Why couldn't he read emotions at all?

After what seemed like an eternity but couldn't have been more than a couple of seconds, Lavender finally said something. "I…sorry, Seamus…but Michael already asked me. Michael Corner, from Ravenclaw. Sorry, I really am, I…"

"That's OK," Seamus said, even though it was far from OK. He just wanted to get her to stop talking. She was one of the people who kept on talking and talking and talking when she was nervous, and right now, he couldn't handle anything like that. "Maybe some other time."

He walked away before she had a chance to answer. He didn't want to talk to anybody anymore, least of all her.

Seamus didn't go to the Yule Ball with a date. Neither did Dean, so it wasn't that bad. But he felt pangs of envy every time he saw Lavender and Michael dancing together, talking together, laughing together…if he'd had the courage to ask her before Michael got the chance, would she have said yes? He should have asked sooner. He kept telling himself to get over it, but the anger, frustration, and jealousy kept burning inside him, growing and growing.

He couldn't wipe the grin off of his face two and a half weeks later when Michael and Lavender stopped dating.


	5. Year 5

**A/N: I recently found out that Chapter 4 is non-canon – Seamus and Lavender **_**did**_** go to the Yule Ball together. I'm not going to rewrite the chapter, so if you absolutely hate fanon, please just ignore that last chapter.**

Seamus felt that the whole world was against him in the fifth year. Just because he and his family weren't ready to take Harry's proclamation that Voldemort was back as absolute truth yet, it seemed as if everyone hated him. Even Dean seemed distant sometimes, even though they remained close friends.

He hated Umbridge, of course, but not because she didn't believe Harry. He hated her because she was a truly evil person. He had a bad feeling about her from the minute he saw her at the opening feast, and when he got a detention in which she made him write with a quill that took blood from his hand as ink, it didn't do anything to improve his impression of her.

He always tried to be the latest to come back to the fifth year Gryffindor boys' dormitory because he didn't want to see Harry, Ron, or Neville looking at him with suspicion and anger. It wasn't easy to avoid people who you had all of your classes with and shared a bedroom with, but during all of the free time that he had, he spent time as far away from them as possible.

He often just sat by the lake, watching people; Lavender in particular. He'd hardly talked to her since he asked her to the Yule Ball, and now that he seemed to be a bit estranged from the rest of Gryffindor House, he was just watching from a distance, not daring to say anything.

He sighed. He hoped that things would be different next year. Hopefully different in a better way, but different in general would be nice.


	6. Year 6

_I'm an idiot._

There were millions of thoughts racing through Seamus's consciousness while he was waiting for Lavender to respond, but this was the biggest one. Why did he ask her to Hogsmeade? She'd said no at the Yule Ball, she was just going to turn him down again. Why did he even start to get his hopes up? He'd successfully Apparated, and he was almost giddy on his success. That didn't mean that he could do absolutely anything and everything successfully. Besides, she had just ended things with Ron, she probably didn't want to get involved with anybody else so soon. He remembered, just minutes before…

"_Lavender!" he called down the corridor. At least she hadn't just walked away – she'd turned around and waited for him to catch up._

_He hadn't exactly thought this part through, so the words came out in a rush. "Iwaswonderingifyou'."_

_She looked confused. "Sorry? Didn't quite catch that."_

_He took a deep breath and managed to slow down. "I was wondering if you'd like to go to Hogsmeade with me. Tomorrow."_

And now, he was waiting for her answer. How long had it been? Two seconds, maybe, but the way his thoughts were racing, it seemed like it could have been hours.

And then – wonder of wonders! – she smiled, and said "I'd love to. Three Broomsticks, eleven o'clock?" Seamus could only nod. He couldn't stop grinning. Lavender walked away with a smile on her face, and Seamus…well, he went through the rest of the day grinning like an idiot.


	7. Year 7

**A/N: According to some sources, Lavender dies during/shortly after the Battle of Hogwarts because of her injuries. However, since it's still (as far as I know) up for debate, she lives in my headcanon. And sorry if you don't think that the ending is a "real ending", but it's where this story ends.**

The Battle of Hogwarts was over. Voldemort had been defeated. Most people were sitting in the Great Hall, resting, talking, some mourning. Seamus wasn't resting. He'd looked all over the castle for Lavender, and couldn't find her. He'd looked in the dead – she wasn't there, thank goodness she wasn't there. She wasn't with the sick, she wasn't in the celebration.

And then, walking past the door to the Hospital Wing one more time, he heard voices – "She's been hurt, badly – maybe Greyback." "Found her on one of those collapsed balconies." His heart dropped to his stomach. He had seen Lavender fighting on one of the balconies. He raced into the Hospital Wing…and there she was: unconscious, bloody wounds on her face and arms, blood stains on her clothes…

"What happened?" he asked Madam Pomfrey. "Will she be all right? How long has she been like this? When – "

"Calm down, Mr. Finnigan." Madam Pomfrey said sternly. He stayed quiet, but it took all of his effort not to demand answers. "We think she was attacked by Greyback. As for her future…I haven't had a chance to look properly at her injuries, but it doesn't look good."

He sat in a chair next to Lavender's bed. "I'm going to have to ask you to leave, Mr. Finnigan." Madam Pomfrey said.

"I'm staying," he replied firmly. "And it'll be bloody useless trying to get me to change my mind."

He stayed. When she was transferred to St. Mungo's, he Apparated there and stayed. He stayed by her side, waiting for her to wake up and praying that she would.


End file.
